To my faithful readers! Thank you very much for following the "Airplane Journals". It has been quite a trip really, 2 years of blogging from airplanes. Why do I blog? Well initially I think it was to preserve my memories of my experiences because, well, I forget things really easily! Better I write in down right? Now that I am preparing to be a dad I am realizing that to create a journal for my child (currently named Peanut) to read about some of the interesting things that dad experienced when he was younger. Legacy? Maybe. I also have finally broke down and gave into the social marketing and media scene, yes I got a Facebook, LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/greghemmings1), Twitter (twitter.com/greghemmings) , and of course my blogger that you are reading right now. I am starting to fully understand that in this globalized world we live in, we each individually need to market ourselves in every way possible to stand out from the crowd.
So welcome to my next evolution of my personal blog. I am calling this series "Dear Peanut". To be honest if you have read the Airplane Journals, you will know many of these up coming stories already, but this time they will be written far cleaner and more concise! Haha, I am trying to steer away from my stream of conscious writing styles! I will also be writing a more business related blog to coincide with this one in the near future, so please keep checking in!
Dec. 16, 2008
"Wrestling O-Town"
I am once again on the road, this time driving back home from a week long tour from Sydney to Ottawa, then back to Saint John. It is Dec. 16th and we just finished filming our latest TV series for RUSH HD. The TV show is called Kardinal Sinners; a series about the life and times of independent professional wrestlers as they travel from town to town abusing their bodies, and getting paid less than the cost of a Happy Meal just to feed their passion of entertaining people in towns all across the nation.
When I read Jack Kerouac?s ?On the Road? when I was in high school, I never thought I would actually live the bulk of my adult years on the road, or on airplanes traveling the globe filming the weird and wonderful, the educational and the inspirational, but here I am on the road again, this time with a group of 5 muscle bound, testosterone filled Alpha males?Jack would be proud!
In the last few months I have traveled to Italy, France, Hawaii, and all over North America filming a documentary about business coaching. I flew to the arctic to film the affects of climate change in a small remote Inuit village. I released a documentary that I shot in Belize about a group of missionaries from Saint John Vineyard church. I have been on the road filming more concerts and rock?n?roll DVDs than I can count?oh, and I managed to fit in getting married in the Cayman Islands, and finding out we have a little bun in the oven!
Two years ago I was approached by 2 professional wrestlers to see if I would produce a television series about their bizarre lives, in and outside the ring. It was a very strange idea for me as I had never been a wrestling fan when I was younger, in fact I really didn?t like it at all. I could never understand why so many of my friends would stay inside Saturday afternoons for hours watching a bunch of half naked men pretend to fight each other. My interests growing up were playing music, sailing, biking, building tree houses?pretty much everything BUT wrestling.
As I have grown older, and developed my career in television, I have found great interest in making documentaries about adventure, subcultures, social issues, and anything that documents people?s passions. It didn?t take long for me to see this possible wrestling show as a real cool opportunity. We found a broadcaster (The Fight Network), and raised the finances needed to produce the show and tour around with a group of 12 wrestlers, television history in the making! Funny part of this story is that I became not only a producer of wrestling television, I also was propelled into the role of a wrestling promoter! The Vince McMahon of Acamac! I booked the venues all over Atlantic Canada, got the insurance, liquor licenses, security, transport trucks, stage lighting, fog machines, marketing, tickets, ?I got involved with everything except getting into the ring!
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